Method of preparing a poultry product

ABSTRACT

A method for preparing a poultry food product wherein the poultry pieces, without any additives, are placed within a pair of sleeves, one of which is substantially liquid impervious plastic material, selectively perforated, and the other sleeve is of open fabric-like material having substantial tensile strength, and pressure is thereafter applied which is sufficient of itself to amalgamate the poultry product by twisting one end of both sleeves containing the poultry pieces.

0 United States Patent 11s] 3,653,926

Armellino [4 1 Apr. 4, 1972 54] METHOD OF PREPARING A POULTRY 2,779,6811/1957 Sell et a1. ..99/174 PRODUCT 2,922,186 1/1960 Sartore ..99/174 X3,095,308 6/1963 Rumsey ..99/174 [721 P f 25 Melvllle Road, 3,193,3927/1965 Lundquist et =11. ..99/174 Huntington Station, NY. 11746 [22] Fild; Deg, 22, 1970 Primary Examiner-Hyman Lord AttorneyLewis H. Eslinger,Alvin Sinderbrand and Curtis, NO-I Morris & s ff R l t .S. A 11 t DeaedU pp ca Ion ata ABSTRACT [63] Continuation-in-part of Ser. No.877,014, Nov. 14,

1969, abandoned which is a continuatiomimpan of A method for preparing apoultry food product wherem the Ser' 579,243 Sept 1 4, 1966, abandonedpoultry pieces, without any additives, are placed within a pair ofsleeves, one of which is substantially liquid impervious [52] US. Cl..99/174 Plastic material, selectively Perforated and the other sleeveis [51] Int. Cl ..B65b 25/06 of Open fabric'like material havingsubstantial tensile su'ength, [58] Field of Search 99/107, 103, 109,171, 171 H and pressure is thereafter applied which is sufficient ofitself to 99/171 PP, 174, 176, 182, 187, 229, 194 amalgamate the poultryproduct by twisting one end of both sleeves containing the poultrypieces.

[56] References Cited 3 Chums, 9 Drawing Figures UNITED STATES PATENTS r2,247,312 6/1941 Rurnsey ..99/174 Patented April 4, 1972 METHOD OFPREPARING A POULTRY PRODUCT This is a continuation-in-part of mycopending application Ser. No. 877,014, filed Nov. 14, 1969, nowabandoned, which application is a continuation-in-part of applicationSer. No. 579,243, filed Sept. 14, 1966, now abandoned, the disclosuresof which are incorporated herein by reference.

This invention relates generally to the preparation of meat and poultryproducts in loaf form, and is particularly advantageous in connectionwith turkey processing operations.

The turkey industry has developed very considerably inthe direction ofproviding preboned and packaged meat in the form of loaves or roasts.This manner of merchandising permits the consumer to obtain a desiredamount of turkey in a small compact package. There is essentially nowaste, and the warming or cooking may be done easily and with a minimumof effort.

Priortechniques for preparing turkey loaves have not, however, been ableto preserve the desired freshness and texture which characterizes themeat of a whole freshly roasted turkey. Moreover, these techniques haverequired expensive molds and associated equipment which had to becleaned and kept in good working order. Furthermore, some of these priortechniques have required the addition of substances other than thepoultry product itself in order for a cohesive mass to be formed.

Typical prior art techniques involved the use of heavy stainless steelmolds. The mold was first lined with skin and then pieces of meat andedible flavor or giblets would be distributed within the mold. A coverwas placed over the meat and skin and this cover would be forced downuntil it exerted a pressure of between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds per squareinch on the meat. The cover was then clamped in place to maintain thispressure and the entire assembly was placed in a freezer and brought toabout F. The frozen turkey was released from the mold, wrapped in apackaging material such as metallic foil and thereafter sold, cooked orcanned.

The purpose for the application of very high molding pressures and forfreezing under pressure was to cause the pieces of meat to cohere into asolid loaf which would maintain its integrity during cooking andslicing. This high pressure however, squeezed a large portion of thejuices out of the meat so that the resulting product was dry andstringy. Moreover, the molds needed to operate under these highpressures were very expensive and had to be cleaned and sterilized aftereach operation.

Other typical prior art techniques involved the addition of an ediblemetallic salt to the poultry pieces in an attempt to form a creamyadhesive coating on the surfaces of each piece which acted as a cohesivesubstance so as to obtain cohesion of the poultry meat into a compactmass. This technique was dependent on the ability to extract saltsoluble proteins from the pieces of poultry in order to provide thecreamy adhesive coating for binding the pieces together. In order toform the required concentration of salt soluble protein on the surfacesof the pieces of poultry, the edible metallic salt was first applied tothe pieces of poultry, which were then agitated or tumbled. After therequisite agitation the pieces were then pressed together in acontainer, and the resultant mass was then cooked so as to enhance theadhesive effect of the coating and thereby bind the pieces of poultrytogether in a compact mass.

The present invention overcomes all of the above difficulties of theprior art. According to the present invention there is provided a turkeyloaf which is integral and cohesive and which retains all of thequalities of texture, moistness and flavor of freshly roasted wholeturkey. The present invention moreover eliminates the need for costlymolds and similar equipment; eliminates the need for mold cleaning andsanitizing; and eliminates the need for the addition of any substanceother thanthe poultry pieces in order to form a compact mass, and therequisite agitation associated with the use of edible salts as anadditive.

In its more general aspects, the present invention involves the placingof pieces of turkey meat, and no other substance, into a first sleeve ofa flexible material such as liquid impervious plastic which is capableof retaining the natural juices of the meat, but which is selectivelyperforated to allow escape of air, along with a small portion of thenatural juices, thereafter placing the plastic sleeve into a secondsleeve of open flexible material such as cheese-cloth which providestensile strength, twisting the sleeves at their ends to produce apressure within the sleeves which is sufficient of itself to squeeze andcompact the turkey meat into a cohesive poultry product, and clampingthe twisted ends to maintain the structure. The thus formed loaves maythen be cooked and frozen or vice versa.

The double sleeve arrangement provides a disposable mold which serves toobtain a substantially cylindrical outer configurationfor the loaf andwhich at the same time keeps substantially all of the natural juices intheir original location within the meatitself. The sleeves are kept inplace until after the meat has been cooked and cooled, so that theresulting loaf will hold together for slici ng without the need forspecial high pressure devices which extract the natural juices from themeat.

There has thus been outlined rather broadly the more important featuresof the invention in jorder that the detailed description thereof thatfollows may be better understood, and in order that the presentcontribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course,additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafterand which will form the subject of the claims appended hereto. Thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which thisdisclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for the designingof other structures for carrying out the several purposes of theinvention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded asincluding such equivalent constructions as do not depart from the spiritand scope of the invention.

A specific embodiment of the invention has been chosen for purposes ofillustration and description, and is shown in the accompanying drawingsforming a part of the specification,

wherein:

FIGS. 1(a) to 1(i) are a series of illustrations depicting the varioussteps in preparing a turkey loaf according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1(a) there is shown a turkey 10 which has been plucked, cleanedand eviscerated. The different cuts of light and dark meat (shown indotted outline as areas A-D) are stripped from the bones of the turkeyand selectively combined according to the desired composition of thefinal loaf. For example, the loaf may consist of all light meat, alldark meat or a selected proportion of each. Since each turkey is not cutin exactly the same manner, due to the varying sizes thereof and theskill of the cutter, the boneless pieces of meat have a generally randomconfiguration.

The selected cuts of meat are shown by way of example at 12 in FIG.1(b). These cuts are assembled as by sandwiching and/or rolling; and arethen placed in a'first wrapping such as a plastic bag 14 as shown inFIG. 1(0). No other substance than these cuts of meat is placed in thewrapping, and thus there is no need for the agitation required whenedible salts were used as an additive.

The bag 14 is formed of a plastic material, of flexible character, whichis essentially moisture-proof at least to the extent that the naturalmeat juices will not flow therethrough. However, bag 14 is selectively,perforated as at 16, in order to enable any entrapped air to escapetherefrom. In a presently preferred arrangement, four such perforationseach about one-eighth to one-fourth inch in diameter are provided onboth sides of the bag. It is noted that some of the natural meat juiceswill escape from bag 14 through these perforations. However, since thereare only four small perforations, only those juices in the area thereofwill escape and substantially all of the juices in the meat will beretained within the bag. The meat itself also provides a natural barrierfor the escape of juices through the holes from areas in the meat remotetherefrom.

The bag 14, containing the pieces of turkey meat 12, is thereafterplaced inside a second or outer wrapping such as cheese-cloth sleeve 18,as shown in FIG. 1(d). This outer wrapping also is flexible but itprovides tensile strength for holding the turkey meat together.Actually, the outer wrapping 18 serves as a disposable mold as will beshown more fully hereinbelow.

One end 20 of the cheese-cloth sleeve 18 is then clamped by means of afirst metal clip 22 as shown in FIG. 1(2). The end 20 corresponds to theclosed end of the plastic bag 14 so that there is effect produced adouble walled bag containing the turkey meat. The open ends of the bag14 and the outer wrapping 18 are then closed, twisted and clamped with asecond metal clip 24 as shown in FIG. so as to squeeze the turkey meatinto a substantially solid compact mass and to expel air out from withinthe plastic bag. The twisting is preferably done by hand; and thesqueezing pressures are kept below that which would result in forcingthe natural juices out of the meat and through apertures 16.

As a result of the twisting action the cheese-cloth sleeve is subjectedto uniform tension both in a longitudinal and a circumferentialdirection which reduces the effective length of the sleeves between theends thereof and thereby produces a pressure which is sufficient ofitself to amalgamate the pieces into a cohesive poultry product. Thistension causes the assembly to assume a generally cylindrical shape andthe cheesecloth and plastic thereupon cooperate to assume the functionof a mold. This mold, however, is very low in cost; and fact, it isactually disposable. The mold moreover is of such characteristics thatit is capable of holding the meat together and in a generallycylindrical shape during cooking, and requires no additives for thepoultry meat in order to hold the meat together. Further, substantiallyall of the meat juices are retained during such cooking since only thejuices adjacent the small apertures 16 can escape. In the case of priorhigh pressure steel molds, the meat and mold had to be frozen until themeat solidified. Only then could the meat be removed for cooking. Thepresent invention obviates this situation.

After twisting and clamping the inner and outer sleeves, the assemblymay then be processed in either of two ways. In the first way asindicated in FIG. 1(G), the assembly is oven roasted, preferably at atemperature of 225 to 250 F., until the internal meat temperaturereaches a temperature of 145 to 160 F. These times and temperaturesresult in a minimum of shrinkage and drying and a minimum in loss ofnatural meat juices through apertures 16 so that the resulting productretains its flavor and moisture. Moreover, there is a minimum ofpressure build up in the assembly during cooking since air and vapor inthe meat escape through apertures 16. In any event the materials ofwhich sleeves 14 and 18 are formed have sufiicient tensile strength towithstand any foreseeable pressure increase in the assembly.

Following this roasting operation, the inner and outer sleeves 14 and 18are then removed for repacking of the meat as indicated in FIG. 1(h).This repacking is accomplished preferably by placing the still wholeroll into a heat shrinkable plastic bag, shrinking the bag by dipping itinto hot water, subjecting the interior of the bag to a vacuum and thensealing it. This vacuum repackaging with a heat shrinkable plastic bagserves to accommodate any shrinking which may have occurred in theroasting operation, so that the meat is retained in a tightly heldcompact loaf. The thus packaged meat may then be cooled and soldimmediately or it may be frozen for later sale. The cooling and/orfreezing of the roasted, repackaged tightly held loaf, serves to inducecohesion thereof so that at the time of consumption the loaf may besliced in the manner of a conventional roast.

The second way of processing,'as indicated in FIG. 1(i) merely involvesdirectly freezing the meat in the inner and outer sleeves l4 and 18. Thethus frozen uncooked loaf is then stored for later sale in thatcondition to the consumer. The consumer thereafter may oven roast theloaf to his own taste, such roasting, of course, taking place with themeat still retained within the sleeves 14 and 18. As in the case of thefactory roasting operation described above, there inevitably occurs acertain amount of shrinkage in home roasting. However, because of thenature of the adjustable disposable mold made up of the sleeves 14 and18, the consumer, after roasting, simply retwists one end of the sleeve.This twisting tightens the sleeves about the meat to accommodate theshrinkage and thereby insures that the meat will be tightly held in acompact loaf during subsequent cooling. As in the first describedprocessing technique, this type packaging during cooling serves to causethe meat to cohere into an integral loaf so that at the time ofconsumption, it may be sliced without the separate pieces of meat comingapart.

It will be appreciated that according to the present invention there isachieved a solid turkey loaf which is of higher moisture content andtruer texture than has heretofore been possible. Moreover, there isprovided a low cost disposable turkey loaf mold which is more suitablefor cooking and freezing turkey meat than anything seen in the priorart.

Although an illustrative embodiment of this invention has been describedin detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is tobe understood that the invention is not limited to that preciseembodiment, and that various changes and modifications may be madetherein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope orspirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of preparing a poultry product, said method comprising thesteps of placing no other substance than cut, randomly configured piecesof boneless poultry inside a first sleeve which is closed at one end andformed of flexible, substantially liquid impervious plastic materialcapable of retaining substantially all of the natural juices from saidpieces of poultry and which has only sufficient perforations to permitexpulsion of air therefrom; placing said first sleeve inside an outersleeve of open fabric material having substantial tensile strength;closing said outer sleeve at one end thereof which is adjacent theclosed end of the first sleeve and securing said one end of the outersleeve in the closed relationship; closing the other ends of saidsleeves containing said pieces of poultry and twisting together saidother closed ends to reduce the effective length of said sleeves betweenthe ends thereof and thereby produce a pressure within said sleeveswhich is sufficient, of itself, to amalgamate said pieces into acohesive poultry product having a substantially uniform configurationwithout forcing the natural juices and other liquids from the pieces ofpoultry; and securing said twisted ends in the twisted position tomaintain said poultry product in a cohesive compacted form.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein said poultry product is turkey.

3. A method as in claim 1 including the steps of cooking, repacking saidcooked poultry product in a heat shrinkable plastic bag, heat shrinkingthe bag about said product and thereafter cooling said product.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein said poultry product is turkey.
 3. Amethod as in claim 1 including the steps of cooking, repacking saidcooked poultry product in a heat shrinkable plastic bag, heat shrinkingthe bag about said product and thereafter cooling said product.